At that exact moment, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Hydra soldiers alike all locked onto a single target: Batman, who had just secured the prize.
Lightning, shockwaves, charging bodies, and a shield all flew toward Batman simultaneously. They were accompanied by a hail of bullets from the Hydra ranks and a flurry of throwing knives unleashed by Baron Strucker from his golden glove.
Faced with this overwhelming onslaught, Batman's Spider-Sense flared with a frantic, deafening warning. Attacks that needed to be countered were coming from every single direction; there was absolutely nowhere to dodge.
Should he use his cape? Or rely on the protection of his Vibranium suit?
Thoughts flashed through Batman's mind in a microsecond. Then, reaching out, he caught the Vibranium shield Captain America had thrown.
Guided by his Spider-Sense, Batman swung the shield up and down with blinding speed, moving so fast it created a literal semi-circular wall of steel in the air.
A continuous clatter of metallic impacts rang out as Batman deflected nearly every single attack. The few he couldn't block, he evaded with precise, micro-adjusted footwork.
Batman expected the assault to last for at least a dozen seconds, but to his surprise, almost everyone collectively stopped after the first wave.
Holding the Vibranium shield high against his chest to guard his chin, Batman quickly scanned the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Baron Strucker.
Before actively charging into the Hydra ranks, Batman had already considered a question:
Why was it that the lightning-wielding man, the shockwave-generating woman, and the Yo-Yo-like woman—all clad in denim jackets—clearly possessed the ability to blitz the Hydra line and seize the Tesseract themselves, yet not a single one of them had done so before his arrival?
However, as Batman watched the surrounding Hydra soldiers blindly throw themselves at him from all sides, and saw Baron Strucker spread the five fingers of his golden-gloved hand, he understood.
These Hydra soldiers weren't trying to move the Tesseract at all. They were being used as human obstacles, meant to impede whoever entered the crowd, even if it cost them their lives!
They had only one purpose in obstructing the charger: to buy time for Baron Strucker to deploy a highly dangerous ability!
His Spider-Sense screamed frantically once more, targeting Baron Strucker alone this time. Yet, the level of danger it signaled was higher than all the previous attacks combined.
As the Hydra soldiers closed in, attempting to pull, grab, and tackle him, Baron Strucker removed his golden glove, revealing a hand that was pitch-black.
A massive cloud of black spores erupted violently from the center of his palm, surging directly toward Batman like a dark shroud.
The black spores swept over the Hydra soldiers below, completely undisturbed by the draft created by their flailing limbs, moving like a ribbon of pure darkness.
His Spider-Sense went wilder than ever before, and that sheer panic instantly made Batman realize one undeniable fact:
That thing could kill him in an instant, and it was entirely unblockable!
The three leading S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had been fighting fiercely earlier, clearly intending to capture Strucker alive. This meant the Baron's body was saturated with a massive amount of these black spores; the moment he died, they would immediately release and spread!
"I absolutely cannot let those black spores touch me!" The thought flashed instinctively through Batman's mind.
In the nick of time, Batman dropped heavily onto one knee, evading the grasping hands of the Hydra soldiers around him.
He followed it immediately with a powerful backward leap, completely extricating himself from the Hydra encirclement.
Though he was clear of Hydra, he was still surrounded by the watchful eyes of Quake, Captain America, Yo-Yo, and the others.
Holding the briefcase containing the Tesseract in one hand, Batman watched as the pitch-black spores launched by Baron Strucker blanketed the exact spot where he had been standing a moment before.
In less than a second, the Hydra soldiers who had surrounded Batman froze dead in their tracks, their skin turning an ashen, pitch-black color.
As the wind stirred by Batman's leap swept past, those Hydra soldiers crumbled like grass dried out by an intense fire, turning to black ash and scattering in the breeze. Their armor and weapons clattered loudly to the floor.
"The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents don't look like they're going to stop Strucker from dealing with me.
Or rather, after dealing with Strucker, they were already planning to head to Manhattan to find me anyway."
Batman remained exceptionally calm, his thoughts entirely undisturbed by the frantic warnings of his Spider-Sense.
With the briefcase occupying one hand, he only had his other hand free to act.
"The floor is made of alloy, and so are the walls." Batman scanned his surroundings, continuing his search for a path to break out.
Batman didn't plan on forcing his way through the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents or Captain America. He might be able to dodge the black spores, but they might not.
Batman needed to find another way out.
Such a path wasn't hard to find—at least not for Batman. It would just cost several hundred million dollars.
Before everyone's eyes, Batman reached for his Utility Belt. But this time, instead of pulling something out, he pressed a hidden button embedded within the belt.
The moment the button was pressed, red Pym Particles rapidly expanded across the surface of Batman's suit, creating a dense forcefield.
In the blink of an eye, Batman's physical stature grew from his original height into a five-meter-tall giant.
Back when he had first infiltrated Ant-Man's Pym Tech building, Batman had noticed that Pym Particles didn't just increase a person's size—they multiplied their strength exponentially as well.
For Batman, after losing Peter Parker's abilities and then regaining them, his strength had recovered back to the eighty-ton mark through recent training.
How strong would he become once he utilized Pym Particles?
Batman hadn't tested it, but he knew exactly what to expect. As one of Batman's many hidden trump cards, he had naturally figured out the exact limits of what the Pym Particles could achieve beforehand.
Three hundred and twenty tons!
It wasn't just an amplification of raw power; his physical body was also enhanced by the Pym Particles to a degree sufficient to exert such terrifying strength.
With that, Batman threw a straight punch directly at the thick alloy wall.
BOOM!
Under the force of a single punch, the thick alloy wall caved inward. At the deepest point of the indentation, the metal tore open rapidly, revealing a narrow fissure leading to another part of the base.
Though Batman's sudden growth and violent punch caught everyone off guard, Baron Strucker's second wave of black spores was already sweeping toward him.
Maintaining his absolute composure, Batman delivered another punch, widening the fissure in the indentation until it was large enough for a Robin to slip through.
The black spores were already close at hand, but Batman didn't even give them a glance, pressing the button on his Utility Belt once more.
Swish!
Another vial of Pym Particles was consumed, and Batman's body reverted to its normal size a mere fraction of a second before the black spores could engulf him.
Under the watchful eyes of Captain America and the others, Batman bolted straight into the fissure.
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